Hypnosis as Everyday Trance by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD

 

July 2025

 

 Quite a lot of people are frightened of hypnosis. They immediately think mind control and stage performances where people are made to do bizarre things, but clinical hypnotherapy is no more threatening than reading a book, walking on the beach, watching a movie, listening to music. It’s just an extension of a common, everyday trance state.

 

You know the sort of thing I mean here: you’re in the zone, you’re not really aware of what’s going on around you even though you can still hear extraneous noises (a dog barking, the wind in the trees), you are aware of passing thoughts, but – like clouds in the sky, they arise and depart; your focus is on reading the book, listening to the song, the rhythm of the walk. You are in connection with the process of where you’re at.

 

As a hypnotherapist I’m uninterested in attempting to persuade you to do anything at all. That strategy would, anyway, lead to a massive resistance on your part!  Instead, I invite you to explore your own experience and inner resources to resolve the thing that is bothering you.  Hypnosis isn’t a violence against you, but a gentle exploration. It is felt as deep, supportive, safe relaxation.

 

Hypnotherapy can have immediate results, or you can notice change happening over time. You may feel different or you may just notice that trepidation, or intrusive thoughts, or feeling compelled to do something habitual has evaporated.

 

I worked with a woman with a fear of flying. She had a planned a trip to Bali but was really worried about getting on a plane. I discovered through the first session (usually about three one hour sessions are what is minimally required) that she used to do really exciting things like scuba diving and motorbike riding. Given that I also have done these things I know the excitement. I know, also, that the body perceives excitement and fear in about the same way (a rush of adrenalin) and thus feeling afraid to fly can be experienced not as fear, but as excitement. By this suggestion alone, when my client flew she was happy and delighted by the whole experience.

 

Intrusive sounds, can likewise evaporate under hypnosis and be translated into the spaces where they used to be a massive bother.  Several years ago, I had a client having to use a dialysis machine at night that made a particular intrusive noise while he was trying to sleep.  Instead of trying to persuade him not the hear the sound (have you ever been successful not thinking about the elephant in the room), I encouraged him through hypnosis to listen to the sound in the same way as he heard the wind in the trees outside his bedroom window, or voices in the street, or anything else going on in the night. In this way, no sound dominated and he was able to sleep.

 

A woman came to me with a fear of falling and was planning a hiking trip through the Grand Canyon. I discovered in her first session with me that her birthday is in January, like me, and I commented that we were both goats. And thus the hypnotherapy sessions were about the magnificence of mountain goats and how they/we are able to climb mountains with great agility and ease. There is caution, carefulness, and confidence in distributing weight and movement. And so my client had a wonderful hike.

 

The process of hypnosis is an interesting one. Brain wave research shows that in a hypnotic trance state a person brains exhibits deep alpha and theta brain waves. Alpha is associated with imagination and theta, with meditation. When the therapist’s brain waves are measured while doing a hypnosis, both alpha and theta are also present, but with the addition of beta waves. Beta is connected to conscious thought. So, in other words, the therapist experiences what the client is experiencing, with the addition of conscious thought in the presentation and shaping of the hypnotherapy session.  You can see why, receiving hypnotherapy feels so good and why I enjoy doing it.

 

I offer hypnotherapy online, which works very well. Contact: dr_mccardell@yahoo.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smoking and Clinical Hypnotherapy by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD

 November 2020

     People come to me for clinical hypnotherapy and counselling  in order to give up smoking and other issues (pain management, sleep issues, speech disorders, eating problems, confidence issues, etc.). Today I want only to talk about smoking and the efficacy of hypnotherapy in the treatment of that. What many people do not realize is that hypnosis cannot make you do anything against your will. If you have no actual intention of giving up smoking, the hypnosis won’t be effective. Hypnosis isn’t magic. It is only an altered state of consciousness where you are in a  trance state, much like the state you enter when you are absorbed into something, like reading, or running, or swimming, or watching a movie. The hypnotherapist is talking to your unconscious and giving you information about smoking that you already know: that it tastes horrible, it’s expensive and is terrible for your health, and that you don’t need to do it. If you really don’t want to smoke, giving up is well within your capacity. Hypnosis, in this case, acts as a trigger to change. No one is compelled to smoke; it is up to a point a choice, even though you may feel it is an addiction to nicotine or something to occupy your hands.

     I’ve known people who had smoked for 50 years and gave it away overnight. One man who told me about  his own experience in this, also said that he cried and cried during that night,  for his smoking had concealed a profound anxiety and depression. And this brings me to a fundamental point. Those who smoke heavily generally do so to deal with emotional and often relational issues that the smoking habit attempts to cover up. At this level, the problem is semi-conscious, that is, it is not something deliberately done, but comes about as a kind of self medication. I’ve be noticing this repeatedly ever since I first trained in this field and then began offering clinical hypnotherapy all those years ago, which is why I now want to emphasize that if you really want hypnotherapy to be successful, you need not only to actually want a given outcome, but to shake off the idea that hypnosis can deal with the problem without your emotional and intentional input and also I suggest that you commit to several sessions of counselling as well as hypnotherapy.

     During counselling you will be heard by someone interested in you.  Connecting to someone (me) about matters that are really important to you are the best ingredients for essential interior change. Hypnosis can beautifully set the landscape up for effective communication. It is relaxing and it feels very good and, with the suggestions presented to you under hypnosis, you have the settings for the beginning of enduring change.  This is not a quick fix, and it has substance.  

      I knew a hypnotherapist who had clients who gave up smoking for a year and then resumed this horrible practice. To my mind that’s not good enough and this is why I continue working for something far more effective.

     Of magic and such, some people expect change without their intention for change, as though with a wave of a wand and sparkles in the air, essential change can happen – whatever your mind set. Such an approach doesn’t work on stage, and it certainly doesn’t work in the clinical setting either.  Hypnosis isn’t magic and change usually cannot be achieved in a small number of sessions. Anyone who claims otherwise is delusional. You really will have to commit to several sessions and, with me, do the actual work to  shift  your relationship with nicotine.  

      Of smoking as an addiction. All the study, conversations and research I’ve done into addiction says the same thing: ‘the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, it’s connection’ (Johann Hari). When we start connecting through meaningful communication we start to heal. This is why I’m urging potential clients who want to be free of smoking, or anything else, to consider coming to see me and get down to the real work and not just a seek magical removal of symptoms.

 

 

 

Hypnotherapy: entering the zone. by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD

October 2015

 I’m currently participating in an online international conference on using hypnosis in the treatment of depression. We listen or watch or read several presentations, ask questions, attend coaching calls where we talk about cases, theories and approaches, and ask more  questions. I’m gathering, expanding, deepening my understanding of things, which only helps those I work with, and also layers on more dimensions to the work I do, which is very satisfying. I am thus moved to write more about hypnotherapy and how it works, because I think such knowledge is invaluable.

     Hypnotherapy, or hypnosis as the Americans call it, is nothing like the hypnosis dished up to audiences attending the latest stage show. It, or I, cannot make a person do anything they have no desire to do, and what’s more, what happens in a session doesn’t involve giving up your conscious awareness nor handing over the control of you to me. This is anathema to the healing principles of any good therapy. Change comes from within  you, from your conscious and non conscious processes. Hypnotherapy is a therapy of change.

     Hypnotherapy provides a wonderful context for moving beyond problems a person might have. The dynamic of a problem is a seemingly endless looping, around and around, with the same thing going over and over in your head, something that doesn’t seem to be solvable just by thinking about it. Indeed, the repeated thoughts, or habits, or whatever it is that dominates a person’s life creates a sort of inflexible space from which escape seems practically impossible. Hypnotherapy can help move a person out of this inflexible space and into fluidity and a certain joyfulness.

     Hypnotherapy facilitates, in a relaxed and yet aware state our mood, freeing and amplifying positive mood states, as well as giving us access to ways of  more flexible thinking and feeling in the future. Hypnotherapy is thus both a present and future oriented treatment. What might be honed in on during a session can become tools for what happens tomorrow, next week, and the rest of your life.

     There are several components of a hypnotherapeutic session. One is dissociation, while another is association, while a third is suggestion, and others. In the dissociative state the person doesn’t know how to produce hypnotic phenomena (eg creating an analgesia) by deliberate means, but can produce the desired effect with no awareness of how she did so. These processes are typically described as latent, or unconscious, and they point to the enormous resources we have at our disposal, though we generally don’t know we have them.  Think here of amazing stories of people finding in themselves enormous strength when faced with catastrophic events and getting out of these situations alive. In association, connections are made between apparently unrelated skills and experiences, connecting the dots, as it were, so that moving forward makes sense.  Suggestion is the added idea offered to the client to ameliorate change in their take on their life. It might be, say, for giving up smoking, that the cigarette tastes disgusting, like a rubbish bin, and that you have no desire to keep it in your mouth a moment longer but rip it out, crush it underfoot, and throw it away. Dissociation, association and suggestion already shift the way you think about things, and introduce into the mix, knowledges you didn’t realize you had.

     When you enter the relaxed and yet focused state that is the hypnotic trance, many things become possible. Changes are already happening to move a person out of the fixed state of a problem so that things can be better managed or removed altogether. The kind of problems beautifully worked on cover: pain management, anaesthesia, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, low self esteem, social anxiety and poor coping skills, problem solving skills, artistic and athletic skills, eating problems, sleeping problems, smoking, increasing mindfulness and relaxation, etc.

     A series of hypnotherapy sessions provides a zone, for experiential and behavioural change and entering into the zone is a pleasant experience: it’s safe, secure, comfortable, and usually easy.  I have a special chair that extends to a soft, supportive, wonderful couch. I call it the magic chair, for it is a tool in the furniture of change. Each session is tailored to each person and I do not use scripts, so I am present with you every inch of the way. You are unique and I work from where you are and what engages you, for engagement is the cornerstone of hypnotherapy. This is the context of learning, this is the zone.

Changing how we listen to noise By Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD

If the noise bothers you, listen to it.  (John Cage, 1912-1992)

      We live in a world of confusion: lights, colours, engine sounds, voices, ideas – a multiplicity of ideas, signs, symbols – a rap dance of images, people telling us what to do and what not to do, smoke/don’t smoke, drink/don’t drink, get a job, get an education, be true to yourself/follow the crowd and don’t be too different, stay with an abusive family, because they’re family; noise, so much noise. What to do, how to be?

     In the noise we seek solace and sense. Some seek solace in the arms of someone else, anybody else, and a whole lot of them. Some look to security in substances and food that allow them to bliss out, at least temporarily. Some gamble on the horses and dogs and coins and leaves fluttering to the forest floor.  Some watch television, show after show. Some run and cycle frenetically, till their muscles melt. Some read books, book after book, till their eyes burn. Some meditate for so long they lose touch with the ordinariness of the world. Some play video games, day after day, night after night, and so on. None of these things are wrong in themselves, but when done to extremes, then there is a problem.

      Noise. We humans are really challenged in the face of noise.  We hate it. Confusion is so unsettling that we seek a solution to clear it up, or at least  find something, anything to stop it.  

      Clinical hypnotherapy uses this propensity as an amazingly valuable tool.  We practitioners use confusion to elicit a hypnotic state, to deliberately create a dissociated condition in which the client’s unconscious is able to respond with a greater capacity of autonomy than their usual waking state.  In this state, the unconscious mind is more amenable to hearing alternatives – and hopefully more healthy helpful ones – to the problem choices the client was making previously.  

     Milton Erickson (1901-1980), the father of  modern clinical hypnotherapy, used this technique beautifully. Consider the following, 

[…some family member or friend] … knows pain and knows no pain and so do you wish to know no pain but comfort and you do know comfort and no pain and as comfort increases you know that you cannot say no to ease and comfort but you can say no pain and know no pain but know comfort and ease…

      There is a play on the words, “no” and “know”, as well as on “you cannot say no to ease and comfort,” but “no pain” and “know no pain but know comfort and ease.” Just in these words, focus is shifted from a focus to ambiguity and in this shift, the locus of pain dissipates, for these are not just words, but a physiological perception as well.  

      I recently was asked to do a hypnotic session on a woman about to have surgery on her foot (very damaged in a horse riding accident). She’d had several surgeries under general anaesthetic and the surgeon wasn’t keen on giving her more general anaesthetic if it was possible.  I used a confusional technique and shifted her awareness from her foot to noticing how her hips feel when she is dancing (for she is a dancer), and so she imagined the dance. She got through the whole surgery without needing a general anaesthetic and was, in fact, not aware of her foot at all.

      I use confusional techniques often because they work so brilliantly and quickly. There are several kinds of confusional techniques (humour, surprise, amplifying polarities, double-binds, paradox, etc), and all are designed to shift awareness, and in a long term way. All serve to break the current problem story, and facilitate healing. In fact, clients say to me, after I ask them on a follow up session how they’re getting on, “What problem? I haven’t got a problem.” This is sometimes quite disconcerting for me, but nevertheless I see they’re right, they really do not have a problem any more, and it feels to them that the problem has never been there.

       Re-entering confusion thus loosens and expands a person’s capacity for being present with other ways of being. It is pretty hard to make someone do something they don’t want to do. You can’t say to some smoker, “Give up smoking, or else!” and expect them to follow suit. The old style of hypnosis uses this direct approach, but generally the effects do not last. What prohibition does is set up resistance to the idea of change. What re-introducing confusion does is shift consciousness from the focus on the problem to multiple other ways of seeing, such that the problem is no longer a problem and resistance has been circumvented. It deliberately disrupts clients’ everyday mental set to allow a suggestion in without the client desiring to resist it.

      Noise thus has a purpose. Listen to it, and it will teach you things.

      Some years ago I attended a series of talks, chants and meditations from visiting Tibetan lamas over at the Perth State Library. I’d park my car in the underground car park and then catch the lift to the place the lamas were, sit cross legged, meditate and listen intently. Then I’d get up and go to the lift and down to my car. There in the underground car park was a deafening air conditioning unit. By the 7^th day, I could hear the chanting lamas in the air conditioning unit, in my car engine, and in the wind. I can still hear the chanting these 10 or so years later.  There is no longer noise, but a greater willingness to listen to the layeredness of confusion and seek other ways of understanding things, other than my own story. It’s there in the hum of things, this place of many ways of being. There are many other choices than the one that locks us in.

Alleviating Chronic Pain. by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD, Dip CH

Aug 2013

     I know pain. I know it intimately. I have had fibromyalgia (an autoimmune disorder) for 15 years, contracted originally from a flu-like illness I got in China. I’d gone to there to give a paper at a health conference in Nanjing. After the conference I, and our little group of Australian travellers did a special acupuncture course, working with de-skinned corpses soaked in formaldehyde. Perhaps it was the toxicity of the formaldehyde, or the environment in which we worked wasn’t all that clean, perhaps my illness had more to do with the ages old dust stirred up by the intense building activity going on in the midst of China’s ten year rebuilding plan. Wherever it came from, it made me very ill. Since that time, fibromyalgia expresses itself in my left leg that cramps spasmodically when I get over tired. There used to be a constant chronic pain, but now, after intensive acupuncture and remedial practices, I’m much better. I do know, however, really know pain.
 

     Pain is inevitable, but suffering is not, so says the Buddha, an observation that is very useful to know when we contemplate alleviating it. Pain is necessary for survival. It allows us to avoid injury or respond to injury as quickly as possible. When it becomes chronic, this purpose is less clear. Neurological evidence suggests that chronic pain imprints itself on our brains, amplifying its experience and getting in the way of its resolution. I’ve watched how fibromyalgia works with me: a cramp is felt, my attention goes to the cramp, the cramp intensifies, intensifies until the cramp is all there is, and stays like this for days, unless I break the cycle with massage or acupuncture or some other effective intervention. I wish I’d known more about hypnotherapy, though. This would have broken the cycle much earlier, perhaps not to get rid of the disorder, per se, but then again, maybe it could have.

     Chronic pain (defined as pain that continues longer than 6 months) infiltrates our lives, affects our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviour infecting our relationships with one another, our work and our enjoyment. Understanding this multidimensional quality of pain is most useful for how we go about working with people in pain, as pain managements units attempt to do. 

     I work with people in pain, mental, bodily, emotional, spiritual and social, and psychotherapy, of which clinical hypnotherapy is essentially a part, is very useful in this regards. It’s significant that most research work on the efficacy of clinical hypnotherapy has been done on pain (over two centuries of research). Hypnotherapy was and is used by doctors and dentists and has a respectable place in surgery, in the alteration of heart beats, in the control of bleeding, and even in the diminution of tumours. It is used in childbirth; used when a person can not take chemical anaesthetics, used to reduce the levels of body damaging medications (when morphine is no longer an option), when pain management is now too expensive, and/or doctors no longer know what to do with a person with their ongoing pain. Clinical hypnotherapy when used by psychotherapists, work to manage physical pain as well as psychological issues.

     We now know a lot about pain and also hypnotherapy, although the shifting paradigms of mind-body relations have altered this understanding quite substantially. Where once pain was thought to be psychogenic (originating from the mind), we now know there is an interrelationship between what the body feels and how the mind interprets this. There is still much to be learned about pain and its effective alleviation.

     Pain is a matter of the whole organism and thus its management  is not about convincing the person that it is “all in the mind”, for it is not. What we now know is they we are complex beings where an intervention on one level affects the experiences we have across the board. This is possible because of the plasticity of the brain and each new experience forges new neurological pathways, essentially and fundamentally changing us.

     Pain is a subjective phenomenon, and privately suffered. The way a person explains their pain is really useful in allowing the therapist to structure an intervention with hypnosis or other therapies. The narrative is an affirmation and acknowledgement of the pain’s presence and effects. This chronic pain narrative is a story told over and over, thus increasing the effects of imprinting on the brain.  This phenomenon is what is known as the symptomatic trance state. The art of healing is in breaking the circularity of that state, which is more about suffering than pain itself. The Buddha was right. Pain is inevitable, but much suffering isn’t. 

      Pain alleviation isn’t about getting rid of it, but changing how it is experienced. This can mean shifting the physicality of it from totally dominating our awareness to somewhere else in the body that isn’t so all encompassing.  The clinical hypnotherapist has tools up her sleeve that seem almost magical, but they are not so much magical as transformative. This is why I do the work I do. I am interested in participating in the transformation of lives. This is collaborative and empowering work, and deeply nurturing of client and practitioner alike.  

Copyright @ 2013 Dr Elizabeth McCardell